This is a proposed patch (patchfile attached) to make the behavior of F9
(Compile) more consistent. Currently when applied to a single file, it actually
runs the equivalent of Build. The patch makes it compile only if the file is not
up-to-date. Also the patch displays more information in the Output Window about
the results of compilation; basically the finish message is displayed both in
the status bar and in the Output Window, to ensure that users are not confused
about whether their file was really compiled or not.

See the discussion on nbui started by:

http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbui/msg00917.html

The patch will be attached. Upon request a full build or binary patch could be
made so more people can try it out. It consists of changes to:

- org.openide.loaders.CompilerSupport: removing special case

- org.netbeans.core.compiler.*: providing special message when no compilation
occurred because everything was up to date; always printing final message in
Output Window

- Java module: adding Build to .java context menu, since it now does something
different

- Ant module: removing some workarounds needed to counteract the special case;
adding Build to context menu

- NetBeans Help: updating two docs pages to reflect behavior

Some issues not covered by this patch:

- "Build" name left as is. nbui folks can determine if this is still a good name
or if something like "Recompile" or "Force Rebuild" is more recognizable.

- #2 of the proposal on nbui, to make the display of the result messages
optional, is not implemented. There is no existing place in Options to set
global compiler behavior, anyway.

- "up-to-date" message is not consistently displayed in the Output Window,
though it is always shown in the status bar. I suspect this is an
org.netbeans.core.output.* timing bug since the only thing making this message
different is that it is displayed very soon after compilation starts.

- JAR Packager: Compile on a *.jar seems to always Build included files, not
Compile them, which is inconsistent.

- Java compilation: external compilation does not seem to refresh folders after
compilation anymore, so the IDE may think it needs to recompile a file even
though you just compiled it. If you manually refresh the folder, it gets it
right. Probably a bug in Java external compiler types.

- JSP compilation: never seems to be up-to-date, not clear what is happening.